The best free events and festivals in NYC

As New York City's largest free literary festival, this annual celebration brings together hundreds of spectacular writers from across the globe for more than a week of talks and shopping to satisfy the borough's brainiacs. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Activities run September 14-22 with writers in a variety of genres: international and local, for adult and young readers, working in fiction and nonfiction, poetry, prose, and graphic storytelling. Events are free, but you’ll definitely want to bring some money to buy some new books to take home.  While activities run for the entirety of the nine-day celebration, the centerpiece festival day on Sunday, September 21, takes place in the parks and plazas surrounding Downtown Brooklyn’s Borough Hall and other venues. Multiple stages will overflow with conversation as authors come together to converse, read and sign books throughout the day. Featured authors include fan favorite Joyce Carol Oates, pioneering graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel, National Book Award winner Sigrid Nunez, NYT bestselling speculative fiction author Nnedi Okorafor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Việt Thanh Nguyễn, Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) award honoree Marlon James, and other award-winning and emerging authors. Festival Day also stages the largest book market in the Northeast with more than 250 publishers, offering readers the possibility to discover new authors, independent publishers and literary organizations. Also don't...

Every fall, Morningside Lights illuminates the night with a procession of awe-inspiring handmade lanterns. This year’s event, titled "TIMEFRAME 1965" features a celebration of the images, icons, and influences of the year 1965. Just after dusk on Saturday, September 20, see more than 50 community-built lanterns. This mobile, glowing art gallery will represent transformative art and artists, seeking to remind viewers how myriad ways of seeing can cohabit and enrich one singular space.  The procession will head from Morningside Park to Columbia University campus, fittingly home to incredible art and arts programming. The route begins in Morningside Park at 116th Street and Morningside Avenue at 8pm, arriving on campus around 8:45pm. "This year’s Morningside Lights, TIMEFRAME 1965, honors an important milestone—the vibrant 60-year history of Columbia’s School of the Arts—and explores the extraordinary artistic energy of that time, out of which a generation of influential artists, filmmakers, performers, scholars, and writers emerged," Melissa Smey, executive director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre, said in a press release. Morningside Lights is led by the directors of Processional Arts Workshop, Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles, and produced by Columbia University's Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts. It’s free to attend with no tickets required; festivities begin at 8pm on September 20 in Morningside Heights. In the week...

It’s hard to get good food on the cheap, but for ten years, Queens Night Market has prided itself on offering the city’s best eats for just $5-6. Ranked one of the best food festivals in the U.S., the foodie festival runs on Saturday nights through the summer at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.  There will also be other items sale besides food, including vintage apparel, handmade jewelry, ceramic products, locally produced art pieces, crochet toys, stationery, and much more. In its existence, the market has attracted over three million visitors, helped launch 450 new businesses in New York and represented more than 95 countries through its vendors and their food. In 2022, the event averaged over 15,000 attendees each Saturday night. 

Shop 'til you drop at FAD Market, a curated fashion, art and design pop-up marketplace, which is back for 2025. Expect to see your favorite makers plus brand new creatives to help you live smarter, gift better and support local businesses.  FAD—which stands for Fashion, Art and Design—takes over different venues with a horde of independent vendors and creators. Admission is free and dogs are welcome! Peruse handmade jewelry, apparel, skincare products, tableware, artisanal packaged food, and more. Whether you're shopping for you or a friend (or even getting an early on that holiday shopping), there are plenty of local gems to pick up.  Here's the upcoming FAD Market schedule for 2025 August 9-10: Summer Market at Empire Stores in Dumbo August 16-17: Governors Island market September 6-7: Fall pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo September 21: Market at Open Streets on Montague  October 4-5: Fall pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo October 18-19: Market at Brooklyn Brewery October 25-26: Fall pop-up at St. Paul in Cobble Hill November 8-9: Fall pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo December 6-7: Holiday pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo; holiday pop-up at St. Paul in Cobble Hill  December 13-14: Holiday pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo; holiday pop-up at St. Paul in Cobble Hill  December 20-21: Holiday pop-up at Empire Stores in Dumbo; holiday pop-up at St. Paul in Cobble Hill 

Tribute in Light is a commemorative public art installation presented yearly from dusk to dawn on the night of September 11. It has become an iconic symbol that both honors those killed and celebrates the unbreakable spirit of New York. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum Plaza will open to the public at 3pm and will be open until midnight for visitors to view the installation from the actual site of the attacks. The plaza is now open. Beams of blue light arranged in the shape of the Twin Towers are visible for 60 miles on a clear night. For the best views, head to Washington Square and Union Square parks in Manhattan, Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens, Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

Hundreds of food and craft vendors and multiple stages close down a busy Brooklyn artery for Atlantic Antic each fall. Spanning 10 blocks and cutting through four neighborhoods, it's billed as Brooklyn's largest street fair, so there’s more to see than stands hawking pashminas and MozzArepas. The eclectic musical lineup brings together diverse local talent and you can graze on grub from a delicious variety of artisanal vendors—washed down with some fab locally brewed ale, of course. The annual affair, hosted by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, has been happening since 1974. Activities run along Atlantic Avenue from Fourth to the Waterfront. This year, it's on Sunday, October 5 from 12-6pm, rain or shine. The 1.5-mile festival stretches through Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, and Downtown Brooklyn.